Iceland to become 'journalist haven'

[Magda Hassan]

Reykjavik, Iceland; 4:00 UTC, June 16th 2010.

The WikiLeaks advised proposal to build an international
"new media haven" in Iceland, with the world's strongest
press and whistleblower protection laws, and a "Nobel" prize for
for Freedom of Expression, has unaminously passed the
Icelandic Parliament.

50 votes were cast in favor, zero against, one abstained. Twelve
members of parliament were not present. Vote results are available
at http://www.althingi.is/dba-bin/atkvgr.pl?nnafnak=43014

One of the inspirations for the proposal was the dramatic August
2009 gagging of of Iceland's national broadcaster, RUV by
Iceland's then largest bank, Kaupthing:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Financial_coll...6_Sep_2008

Two changes were made to the proposal from its original form as
per the opinion of the parliament's general affairs committee
[http://www.althingi.is/altext/138/s/1329.html]. The first of
these altered slightly the wording of the first paragraph so as to
widen the arena for research. The second of these added two new
items to the list of tasks for the government:

- That the government should perform a detailed analysis,
especially with respect to operational security,
for the prospect of operating data centers in Iceland.

- That the government should organize an international
conference in Iceland regarding the changes to the legal
environment being caused by expansion of cloud computing, data
havens, and the judicial state of the Internet.

Video footage from the proposal's vote will be available at:

http://www.althingi.is/altext/hlusta.php...27&horfa=1

http://www.althingi.is/altext/hlusta.php...06&horfa=1

For details of the proposal and press contacts, please see
http://www.immi.is

[Magda Hassan]

And once it is all set up the State Dept emails will be posted. In the mean time they are in many safe hands. :listen:

[Peter Presland]

Must admit I thought "Nice one - a small victory to chalk up" when I got the email

Then reality hit. I can see the potential Data Centre Operators jockying for position right now. It's a slam dunk, as they say, that the winners will be those already cozied up to the NSA and their US military Cyberwarfare operation (covertly of course but can't afford to fall out with them now can we?). Great for the spooks; all the people they need to keep an eye on in one place. Every bit of cryptographic - and related traffic analysis technology focussed on that isolated volcanic island in the North Atlantic (or is it Arctic?).

Hmmm.

Think I'll wait 'til it all shakes down a bit before moving WikiSpooks away from Ireland.

[Magda Hassan]

That is true of course. I am hoping that there will be others that follow in their footsteps. Safety in numbers and power in the union :willy: